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Photo Credit: ©2000 Dolezal Publishing/David Goldberg

Many ready-to-use weed control products are available in garden and home stores, and they’re great for use in small areas. Just be sure to apply them with the same precautions and techniques used for larger situations.

If broadleaf weeds weren’t enough of an enemy to your lawn, your grassy areas can also become infested with unwanted grasses – monocots that put forth a single seed leaf. What qualifies as a grassy weed? Any turfgrass that has a different color, texture and blade width than your turfgrass planting. For example, tall fescue is a perfectly fine, sturdy turfgrass by itself, but it becomes a weed in your lawn if you’ve planted 100 percent Bermuda grass.

To eliminate grassy weeds, you first have to determine what species of grass is invading your lawn, because the eradication method required depends on whether the grass is an annual or perennial. Annual grasses respond well to pre-emergent herbicides, which prevent grass seeds from germinating each spring. Perennial grasses can only be controlled with nonselective postemergent herbicides that contain sodium glyphosate. These herbicides have the unfortunate side effect of killing all desirable plant life, as well as the undesirable grass – meaning you’ll have to reseed the entire area once the weeds and turfgrass are removed.

Pre-emergent herbicides are typically dry, granular preparations applied in early spring as soon as the lawn thaws. They should be broadcast over the affected area about 2-3 weeks before the soil warms and weedy grasses begin to germinate (but only after your regular turfgrass has started to grow). That means you should know when your particular weedy grass germinates and where it’s located on your lawn. This second piece of information may not be as attainable as it sounds, since you’ll have to recall or take note of where the weedy grass appeared the year before it disappeared as seed into the ground. (If you keep a garden journal, consider noting how your grass is doing each season from now on.)

Pick a day when the temperature is 60-80 degrees F, the air is still and there’s no rain in the forecast for at least 48 hours. Don’t forget to don protective clothing – including gloves, a respirator and eye protection – when applying herbicides to your lawn, no matter if you’re spot-treating or applying chemicals over a large area.

When it comes to disseminating the herbicides, it’s best to use a fertilizer spreader that’s calibrated to dispense at the recommended rate on the package label. Some experts recommend broadcasting ½ the rate on the label in one direction, then ½ at a right angle to that first direction for even coverage.